Sermons-First Unitarian Universalist Society of San Francisco

Jim Jones and the Nature of Cult (November 18, 2018) Forty years ago on November 18th, 1978, news spread around the world, but reverberated especially in the San Francisco Bay Area about the People's Temple, which had been located right in the heart of the Filmore, but relocated to Jonestown, Guyana, when over 900 residents took their lives. It raised the question about what happened there, and wh...

The Soul of Genius (November 11, 2018) In remembrance of our recent musical programmes, evidenced by our Reformation concert last year and our observance on April 4th of the 50th anniversary of Martin Luther King's assassination, these times have provided our chorus with plenty of inspiration to lift up and honor these occasions through music. The theme for today's music is almost the same as my f...

Invitations Across the Veil (November 4, 2018) In pagan tradition around Samhain, Day of the Dead and All Souls' and All Saints' Days, this idea of a day when the veil is thin has persisted as an observance. A time to connect with ancestors, literally or in our hearts, a time to acknowledge loss and the what persists across loss. Rev. Vanessa Rush Southern, Senior Minister Rev. Alyson Jacks, Assoc...

Foundations: Our Pagan Roots (October 28, 2018) As we approach October 31st it seems a great chance to turn to the Pagan wisdom and practices that both influenced the formation of the Christian tradition (and so Unitarian Universalism) and that deeply sustain some of our members still. What, for instance, does the Gaelic festival of Samhain say about the season that is upon us and what invitations...

Living Hope. Living Justice (October 21, 2018) Since UUSC’s founding, Unitarian Universalists have been fundamental to UUSC’s work to advance human rights. With our shared values under threat, there is an even louder call to collaborate and even more we can accomplish together. The Rev. Mary Katherine Morn, UUSC’s President and CEO, will share a sermon about the need for hope and justice in the fa...

Enshrined in Walls and Windows (October 14, 2018) This Saturday just prior to service will have been the 50th anniversary since our Center -- the Brutalist-style addition that partners with our sanctuary/church -- was built. What are the stories of how it started, and what is the life it has given shelter to, and what does it say about us. Rev. Vanessa Rush Southern, Senior Minister Rev. Alyson Ja...

Beloved Community (October 7, 2018) Unitarian Universalists are being called in this moment to live more powerfully and boldly into a vision of Beloved Community. What does this look like and how do we answer “Yes” to this calling in our lives and in our congregations? Rev. Susan Frederick-Gray, Unitarian Universalist President Rev. Vanessa Rush Southern, Senior Minister Rev. Alyson Jacks, Associa...

Loved Into Being (September 30, 2018) Each of us is the unique interweaving of the stories of the people who came before us, and who we are as people is born, at least in part, out of the dance of others into and out of our lives. One new dance partner for the year in the UUSF community is the ministerial intern, Shari Halliday-Quan, whose ministry will be shaped, will be loved into being, in part...

Lost and Found in America (September 23, 2018) This month the Minister’s Book Group is discussing Jon Meacham’s “The Soul of America”. It is a timely dive into the challenging chapters in our history when we rose to reclaim our best self, and what those chapters have to say about hope and the sources of resilience that we can draw on in these days. Rev. Vanessa Rush Southern, Senior Minister Rev....

Lay the Burden Down (September 16, 2018) Yom Kippur is the day in the Jewish Liturgical Year that the book of life is closed for the year, our deeds written in permanent celestial ink, and so the ten days before, The Days of Awe, we make amends (if we are wise) for our wrongs. The metaphor of death and new life is part of that ritual time. Why? What does it mean to lay our burden of wrong or hurt...

The Love Boat (September 9, 2018) It is a new year of church. Rosh Hashana is around the corner telling us also that the book of life is about to be opened on a new year of choices and actions. And we launch again, together. What metaphor shall we try on? I’ve got an idea…. Rev. Vanessa Rush Southern, Senior Minister Rev. Alyson Jacks, Associate Minister Dennis Adams, Worship Associate UUSF Choir...

Rising Up (September 2, 2018) This Labor Day weekend, let's celebrate some good news about working people and its positive lessons for our faith. Millie Phillips, Guest Preacher Phil Marshall, Worship Associate The Labor Heritage/Rockin’ Solidarity Chorus Pat Wynne, music director Mark Sumner, piano Ariel Andrew, song leader Eric Shackleford, welcome Jonathan Silk, Podcasting, OOS, Sound

Carried Through Time (August 26, 2018) Summer vacation took me to Blue Hill Maine to a cottage on the edge of Bagaduce River where we watched the tidal waters flow in and out to the Penobscot Bay. Tall stands of trees - Eastern Pine, Fir, Oak, and Birch – stood in quiet witness while birds fed on crustaceans buried deep in the pockets of the emptied mud flats. Time feels different on tidal waters,...

Summer Stillness and Silence (August 19, 2018) Anne LeClaire hears the call to "Sit in Silence." What happens over the time she begins to do so is that the layers of life -- the ones noise and the necessity of speaking mask -- get peeled back. Let's talk about what she finds and the power and place of silence in our spiritual lives. Rev. Vanessa Rush Southern, Senior Minister Lucy Smith, Worship A...

Pilgrimage (August 12, 2018) There is a long History across cultures of people taking pilgrimages, often to places of religious or spiritual significance. What is at the heart of the pilgrimage, and how can it be part of our every day life? Rev. Vanessa Rush Southern, Senior Minister Rochelle Fortier Nwadibia, Worship Associate Larry Chinn, jazz pianist Asher Davison, song leader Jonathan Silk, Po...

Awakenings (August 5, 2018) “...the great end is to awaken the soul, to excite and cherish the spiritual life.” So wrote the early nineteenth century Unitarian minister, William Ellery Channing, about the education of children, but I believe it holds true of many others of us too. In Small Group Ministry we try to make place and a process, for people to come together on a regular basis, to explore...

We Are So Much More Connected Than We Think (July 29, 2018) Eleanor Piez spent two weeks in June in San Ysidro CA and Tijuana, Mexico, studying the U.S.-Mexico border through the lens of theology. Eleanor will reflect on the struggles, suffering and possibilities occurring there, and how we can participate now in the sixth UU principle, the goal of world community with peace, liberty and justice f...

The Deep Song of Our Lives (July 22, 2018) What can we in our time and place learn from a mild-mannered poet who was the first martyr of the Spanish Civil War? Stories from the life and poetry of Federico Garcia Lorca.   Rev. Mary McKinnon Ganz, Assistant Minister Sam King, Worship Associate Mark Sumner, piano Asher Davison, song Leader Radim Zenkl, mandolin, flute, vocals Judy Payne, we...

The Warrior and the Wise Man (July 15, 2018) In the 12th century, young men across Europe enlisted en masse to leave their homes and families and travel east to fight in the Crusades, believing that waging war was the best way to serve God, the Prince of Peace. Here is a story of one such soldier of Christ, searching for purpose in his cause, as he grapples with the meaning of “Holy War” on his wa...

Doing Small Things with Great Love (July 8, 2018) Person by person, relationship by relationship, sometimes casserole by casserole, with conversations and occasional rides to church, we are building a congregation that is a caring community. How does it all come together, and what is each one's role in creating it, in the midst of already overfull lives? Rev. Mary McKinnon Ganz, Assistant Minister...

Loving America (July 1, 2018) How do we hold onto what is good about our country, given its past wrongs and present struggles? What is real about what we love, and what is fantasy? What would it take to build an America we might love unreservedly, as a collective act of imagination? Rev. Mary McKinnon Ganz, Assistant Minister Lucy Smith, Worship Associate Ariel Andrew, mezzo soprano Alan Alpert, t...

Breaking the Silence Barrier: Lessons of Love and Liberation (June 24, 2018) Join us this Pride Sunday as we celebrate and mark the 49th Anniversary of the Stonewall riots, which gave voice to the queer liberation movement. In light of today’s political perils and in the particulars of this Pride Sunday, listen to words of poet and writer Audre Lorde, “The transformation of silence into language a...

What We Tell Our Men (June 17, 2018) There is a lot of talk about what we tell our girls and our women -- messages that are not helpful or supportive of their fullest being and fruition, but this Father's Day, what about some reflections on what we tell our men and our boys about what that reality they are born into "should" mean or might! Rev. Vanessa Rush Southern, Senior Minister Daniel Jackowa...

State of the Garden: A Reflection on Us and Here (June 10, 2018) People asked me when I came what was my vision for UUSF. That seemed so silly. Vision doesn't come with you like a stencil you apply to any wall, it grows out of a place like the things of a garden that thrive in that soil, with that level of rainfall. So, 9 months in, as we wrap up one "church year" and as we think about launching n...

The Outermost House and The Sacrality of Place (June 3, 2018) A bit less than 100 years ago, Henry Beston wrote "The Outermost House" after a year he spent in Cape Cod. The book didn't sell much at first but it has become one of the most famous literary touchstones for naturalists and conservationists in America. Beston argues with observation and poetry for the power, the beauty, and by extension...